Fuzz and OD - what "other" transistors could I use?

[tracer03]

I have a couple of salvage and surplus stores near me that carry a variety of parts, and they recently bought out the stock of an electronics supplier here in town that closed. They're still in the process of sorting and pricing items, but I've been able to pick up some bits here and there I can use for building.

One of the employees told me that they would be restocking their transistors soon, and they've got a pretty good assortment of silicon transistors coming (no germs, alas...).

Apart from the more 'common' 2N transistors, I'm keeping my eyes open for just about any 'newer' tranistors on this list:
 
Transistor Substitution Chart

Since I am mostly building fuzz and OD circuits for now (n00b), are there any other transistors I should keep an eye out for, that I can sub into some builds here?

[Beaker]

Look out for metal can versions of the common transistors like 2N2222, BC108, BC109 etc. as in my opinion, they sound better than the T092 plastic case versions. ME4003 are worth stocking up on too. I'm sure you will get lots of other suggestions.

Make sure you keep an eagle eye on their supply of ICs and diodes as well!

[tracer03]

Beaker wrote

Look out for metal can versions of the common transistors like 2N2222, BC108, BC109 etc. as in my opinion, they sound better than the T092 plastic case versions. ME4003 are worth stocking up on too. I'm sure you will get lots of other suggestions.

Make sure you keep an eagle eye on their supply of ICs and diodes as well!

Oh, definitely - I lucked out last time and got a few old 1N34 and metal can 2N2222s.

[Travis]

Si BJTs tend to be inexpensive in general but I'd be on the lookout for JFETs. If you could get a deal on a big bag of J201 or 2N5457, etc that would be a major score

[tracer03]

Travis wrote

Si BJTs tend to be inexpensive in general but I'd be on the lookout for JFETs. If you could get a deal on a big bag of J201 or 2N5457, etc that would be a major score

Yeah, I cleaned them out of J201s last time I was there (12 for $3.60!)...

[rocket88]

not many more transistors i can think of that haven't been mentioned already. keep an eye out for harder to find BC transistors like BC183, BC130 (BC130c in particular i love in Si fuzzfaces), BC184, BC167, BC239

[heuermh]

Yeah let us know where you are!  I've always been a fan of the $2 bag of random old-skool components, sometimes you find some mojo magicks in there and sometimes you find random shit to give to yer kids.  :)

[Frank_NH]

I have a favorite electronics surplus shop I like to visit whenever I'm in Colorado Springs called OEM Electronics.  I was there once on a parts hunt and turned up some 2N5138s.  I thought these may be a close cousin to the highly desirable (for Big Muffs) 2N5133s, but they turned out to be PNPs.  No matter - I'm using them now in a PNP fuzz circuit.  They look cool too, as they have the good quality gold leads!

Look for old military stuff as those components are of good quality (and close tolerances) and designed to last a long time.

[tracer03]

heuermh wrote

Yeah let us know where you are!  I've always been a fan of the $2 bag of random old-skool components, sometimes you find some mojo magicks in there and sometimes you find random shit to give to yer kids.  :)

I'm in Saint Paul, MN - the shop is called 'Ax-Man' surplus, and it's been around since before I was born. They have a website, but it's info only, really.

They generally keep a good stock of 1/4 watt resistors, ceramic and film caps, wire, etc. The Arduino and Robotics folks are in there all the time. It's the type of place where it's not really 'Shopping' - it's more like an archaeological expedition + treasure hunt...that ends up costing you money at the end.

Thing is, they buy surplus all the time, and their restocking habits are...'random' at best. You may go in on Monday and find nothing, and then Wednesday go in and find a box of NOS 25v tantalum caps and 2N2222 metal cans.

[Muadzin]

Travis wrote

Si BJTs tend to be inexpensive in general but I'd be on the lookout for JFETs. If you could get a deal on a big bag of J201 or 2N5457, etc that would be a major score

JFET's? Through hole? In large quantities? Why not ask for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow?

They're like the lottery. Some lucky dude always manages to bag one, but never the rest of us. Because if it was possible we would all have such big bags. As I said on another forum, a large quantity of JFET's so you can sort them for matching pairs to build a certain boutique pedal will cost you probably as much as that boutique pedal in the first place. Now there exists the option of going for cheaper SMD JFET's with adapter boards, but it will cost you a few evenings to solder enough of them for sorting to those boards AND add some clippings for legs, you'd wish you would have sprung for that mythical big bag of through hole transistors.

I'm not even bothering with JFET drives anymore. Too much work. And the problem with drive pedals, there's millions of them. As soon as a new more interesting flavor comes along off your pedal board goes all that hard work.

Also regular TO-92 transistors will become obsolete as well. Production of 2n5089's has already stopped. I wonder when the 2n5088 and others will follow. And much gnashing and wailing of teeth of Big Muff builders world wide will follow.

[Travis]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"

I've got factory boxes of Mullards and such that are way more rare, so I have hope :)

I get what you're saying though, and I'm down with the SMD stuff too. I wanna make some PCBs using smd JFETs and through hole passives to eliminate the pesky adapter board

[rocket88]

These are reasons I stock up on whatever I can when I can. I mean who needs 2k metal can BC109's and 2k metal can 2n2222a's? But I jumped on that deal. Also, I was once able to get a good score of 2n5458 or 2n5457 I forget which one, but I scored 500 for $80usd including shipping. Never found another deal on FETs again. I think everyone gets one good score, and apparently I've used mine up. Lol

The thing about FETs is that the smd ones have much better tolerances, so the extra time and effort to solder them to adaptors is well worth it. Once I deplete my FET stock I plan on going smd for them rather then paying through the nose for through-hole ones that vary widely in spec. Just my $0.02

[Hozy31]

I got a lucky score recently from ebay ~1600 jfet batch and a PNP/NPN batch of ~650 for just over £120. Some nice stuff in there and some i have never heard of. Check it out. The seller had more but i was outbid for the others. I really don't think i'll find as good as this again. Good luck, i really think we all deserve at least one good deal now and again. Sometimes it takes a bit of searching though.

[tracer03]

Well, I wish I had more cash...but I was able to pick up a few things for $8 and change...

2 - TL081 in sealed 'Archer' packaging
4 - LM1458N
6 - 2N5447 (TO-106 pkg)
6 - 2N2484 (metal can)
12 - 2N5138

They had a bunch other transistors there that I will have to look up, such as:
2N4258
2N3390
2N3391
2N3393
2N4062
2N4248
2N3417
2N3390

...along with some mica caps that may be worth looking at.

[Frank_NH]

"12 - 2N5138"

Whoohoo!  Nice PNPs.  Now you can build this...(well, wait until I verify the layout )

http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Fuzz-Master-with-FET-Boost-td36510.html

[tracer03]

Frank_NH wrote

"12 - 2N5138"

Whoohoo!  Nice PNPs.  Now you can build this...(well, wait until I verify the layout )

http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Fuzz-Master-with-FET-Boost-td36510.html

Yep. That's first on the list...or is it the Wren & Cuff, 'cause my Germaniums came in the mail yesterday? Either way...

[heuermh]

tracer03 wrote

I'm in Saint Paul, MN - the shop is called 'Ax-Man' surplus, and it's been around since before I was born.

Well, shit, I'm there almost every other Friday on my lunch break  :)

This was our best find ever
https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/userpix/11687_photo_3_1.jpg
https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=122280

It's now part of an installation for kids to play with at Leonardo's Basement
https://leonardosbasement.org/

[tracer03]

heuermh wrote

Well, shit, I'm there almost every other Friday on my lunch break  :)

Same here. But 'I'll just swing over there for a quick look...' always seems to turn into '2....hours....later....'

[Muadzin]

Best moment I ever had was when I found a lot of discarded PCB's in a university electronics trash bin. It had a lot of LM1458's and a LM741 on them, all socketed, and quite a number of tropical fish caps on them. I even used a couple of the LM1458's and those worked. Another time there was an old scanner in there with a lot of BC548 and BC547 trannies in them. Don't know if they're usuable as I've yet to come across a layout that calls for them, but better to have them and not need them then need them and not have them, right?

I occasionally go back there to see if more interesting stuff gets dumped there, but it's almost all SMD stuff, computers mostly.

[lasermonkey]

I've had a few lucky acquisitions over the years. The first was when, at a previous job (I was a test tech at a place that made industrial process controllers and recorders)  they were closing down a production line and were just going to tip all the left-over components into a dumpster, rather than have someone go through and puck out the useful bits. I asked if I could take the lot home and they were more than happy for me to do so. I got a whole load of useful components, not to mention plenty of RS interlocking component trays.

Another good find was 60+ Mullard OC76s which I bought for around £15 a few years back. More recently, I bid on some assorted "pulls" which had some metal can CA3080s amongst them. Although there weren't as many 3080s as I'd hoped, there were a decent number of metal can LM208s, around 300 or so 2N4393s and about the same of another metal can JFET whose identity escapes me at the moment, but has four pins.